Chromed Metal – 10 – Hot Sands
Recap so far
Irina, from the Aldecaldos family (a Nomad scout), was working with Dan as they signed a contract with the Voodoo Boys gang, to give them the Vitrix, essentially to win them a gang fight in Night City, in the times of the Red.
Things went down hill, as Dan died trying to retrieve the Vitrix, from the sabotaged hotel where he was hiding it. Paid mercenaries pulled it off and killed him.
Irina, on her side, was going to an outpost (part of the same contract), to retrieve a radar that the Voodoo Boys were waiting for. Part of the package, both the Radar and the Vitrix were needed. Radar too, got sabotaged by someone, probably 6th Street or someone else. Irina and Brandt plan to figure that out.
Scene 20 (Irina)
Context | Irina is on her way with her motorcycle, with Brandt driving his own motorcycle, on their way to north Watson to scavenge for a Radar. But she’s going to make a call to Dan, to ping the other side of the job. |
Prompt | 🎲 Scene check → Happens as expected |
Interpretation | Irina is going to call Dan, but he’s not answering, eventually it is Commander Kherman picking up, the Mercenary leader who sent to kill Dan. This is going to be quite interesting. |
Irina → Dan, what the hell man, you were supposed to give updates by the evening. What’s up?
Kherman (on Dan’s line) → This is not your boyfriend Dan
Irina → F**k you. Who’s there?
Brandt → What’s going on, Irina?
Irina → Shut up (turns back on her Agent). Who the hell are you?
Kherman → You don’t want to know, unless you want to end up like your Boyfriend. Stop looking for the Vitrix, or we’ll kill you. Your choice.
Irina → I’m gonna find you, and kill you, motherf*#@er.
Kherman → That hurts. Again, stop tracking the Vitrix, you won’t get any warning (hangs up)
Kherman makes a call to his boys, Josh and Mira
Kherman → If you find yourself in trouble because of some Aldecaldos, I’ve already warned them. If they don’t obey, kill them. I got data, her name is Irina. Looking for the Vitrix. If she asks, you have no clue where it is.
Josh → Yes, commander.
Irina is infuriated, her decision is to call the Voodoo Boys. This is mostly a resignation, though she has a contract with them.
Irina → Hey, Kakarolo. Things began out wrong. We’ve lost the Vitrix.
Kakarolo → What’s with the Radar?
Irina → Didn’t you hear me? Dan is dead, and he lost the Vitrix, contract pulls off.
I am thinking perhaps the radar is meant to track down the Vitrix, that would explain why both are needed. I am going to arbitrarily pull this off this way, as it makes a lot of sense. |
Kakarolo → I am not deaf, I heard you. I care about the Radar. You got it?
Irina → Not yet, I was on my way out there. Should I pull off?
Kakarolo → No. I want the Radar. I am not paying full price, but you better finish your job, fetch the Radar. Do you know who got the Vitrix?
Irina → No. Dan was going to pick it up in his Motel. He died on his way there, or there, I guess. Probably someone was already looking for it. Any likely enemies?
Kakarolo likely knows who else is behind the Vitrix, as he was already aware of it when Dan came to him. 🎲 Does he know about Vitrix interested parties? (Likely) → No, obviously. Ouch. |
Kakarolo → I am smart, not an oracle. Figure that out if you want to stay alive.
Irina → Pff. What if I give you the Radar, what will happen with Dan’s family?
Kakarolo → We care only because we share bloodline with him. But he’s dead. The dead don’t keep contracts. But we have honor. We pay you, and get the Island for ourselves, in the name of your boyfriend.
Irina → He was not my boyfriend.
Kakarolo → Anyway, get the Radar, then we talk.
Irina → Fine. Bye.
Irina hangs up her Agent, Brandt stands curious to her side, with their Motorcycles turned off, to the roadside.
Brandt → Are you telling me what’s going on?
Irina → Dan is dead.
Brandt → What? Your city friend? He was cool.
Irina → He was indeed. The Aldecaldos invited him to join us many times. But he decided to take care of his own family, you know?
Brandt → Well, he decided to continue working with that Harley… trouble bringer.
Irina → Now his family, his people are roaming the city, looking for a place. They want to go to an Island, to stay out of Night City’s bureaucratic corpo crap.
Brandt → Can’t blame them. You’re either part of a gang, or Corpos take you down. That’s Night City by the book.
Irina picks up a cigarette, and looks to the Horizon. Offers one to Brandt (🎲 Does he accept? → Yes, unless… it’s the last one on the box. 🎲 Is it? → Hard to say, obviously.)
Brandt → No, thanks, you might need some more cigarettes for later, Irina. Plus, I don’t take one while in a job.
Irina → It is part of the Job. We indeed know what we’re looking for.
Brandt → Are we now?
Irina → Yeah. There’s a radar, we can track who killed Dan, but we’ve got to give it to the Voodoo Boys.
Brandt → What are you talking about?
Irina → Look, we can scrap out the rest and take it to our family, but this Radar has to go to the Voodoo.
Brandt → (🎲 SUM NPC Opinion → Going to do something about it too) You know we’ve got to tell our leader, Irina…
Irina → Fine… I do it for Dan. Do you understand?
Brandt → I am still going to let our leader know about this, our family comes first, Irina.
Irina → Deal.
Ok, Brandt has joined the party. Going to stat him out. Rolled a 3, so he is a Netrunner. |
Scene 21 (Irina)
Context | Going to start playing Irina and Brandt mission of scavenging, on the lookout for the Radar. So PUM, this is all yours. Let’s design a scene. |
Prompt | 🎲 Scene Prompt → Face active opposition. 🎲 Challenge → Something to crack, unlock or enable. 🎲 Circumstance → Presence of special equipment or feats. 🎲 Describe area → Actively Unusual. 🎲 Risk? → Endanger an object. 🎲 Is the object already the Radar? → Yes, possibly. |
Interpretation | Alright, this is interesting. Irina and Brandt make distant eye contact of a truck, potentially carrying the radar (unconfirmed), (🎲 Is the truck currently moving? → No) the truck is parked in a forward camp, and is likely electronically locked out from access. There are patrols, highly secured. Need to describe the location, need some Adjective inspiration 🎲 SUM 2 Adjectives → Careful, strategic 🎲 Is it a ruin or any sort of construction? → Hard to say. 🎲 Is there a stone wall perimeter or similar? → Yes, for now. 🎲 Any tall building in the site? → Yes, possibly. 🎲 Guards on elevated positions? → Yes, unless… (they take shifts or breaks) 🎲 Anything going on right now? → Don’t know. 🎲 Are the guards associated with 6th Street? → Hard to say. |
Irina and Brandt scout the desert for a while, until they found traces of trucks and other vehicles going on a certain direction, north-east. Eventually, they spot a distance camp, looks to be an old workshop or factory section, now highly militarized and secured, a wall perimeter is guarded by several guards, 🎲 1d4: [2] = 2 towers, with guards on top, moving around in patrol state, a Truck can be seen inside, carrying something on its trailer. A central tall building can be seen, probably carrying over communication functions or who knows what. The patrol can’t be associated for now with any enemy in particular, as they could be either mercenaries, thugs, gangs, paid runners, or anything really.
Brandt decides to scan the area for surrounding Net Access Points.
Irina scouts around to see if there are any outgoing patrols.
🎲 Are there any Access Points? (Likely) → Yes, unless… (They can be bait points) 🎲 Are there any outgoing patrols → No. (Nothing apart from the truck tracks going inside, there aren’t any footsteps or obvious trails) |
Brandt → Anything?
Irina → No, nothing. They’re bunkering down in there. What are they doing, I wonder?
Brandt → Either waiting for a pickup… or waiting for orders. By the fortification level, they expect to be waiting for some days. Militech?
What can be learned? 🎲 SUM Inspiration → give + disastrous + emotions (reading as pain) |
As you are looking from a distance with your binoculars, you notice some prisoners (🎲 How many? → 1d6: [3] = 3), being dragged around from small tents to the main tower building.
Irina → You? Found anything?
Brandt → I see (🎲 1d4: [2] = 2) 2 Access Points, I am pretty sure one of them is a fake bait. This is kind of not very usual(🎲 Is this typical for any gang? → Hard to say.), perhaps it’s a common practice by some gangs, but not sure.
Irina → Can’t you tell which one is the fake one? Would be good to unlock one of those side doors, cameras, whatever you find. We stand no chance in a fight.
Brandt → I can try… be ready, just in case.
Brandt is going to make a wild guess, and jack in one of the two, judging based on his general (🎲 Deduction) knowledge.
Brandt → Damn, no idea. They must have a good NetRunner
Irina → Could you at least trace to any branding, logo or identifying lock? (🎲 Could he? → Yes. 🎲 Militech? → Yes.)
Brandt → Yeah, seems to be Militech. Must be a waiting area for Militech to pick up this high-tech Radar, whatever it is.
Irina → I knew it! Ok, where are the Access Points?
Let’s describe two areas with PUM to inspire two Access Point locations 🎲 AP 1 → Specially Empty 🎲 AP 2 → Commonly Ancient |
Brandt → I can trace one of them to that ruin over there, to the right side of the encampment. The other one seems to be far closer to their center. Probably the high tower. I’d say we have a better chance to one of the right side.
Irina → Hm… we’ve got to get closer to the right side. Do we sneak in? Do you think you can crack the Access Point from the outside side of the wall?
🎲 Can AP2 be hacked from outside the encampment wall? → Don’t know. |
Brandt → Can’t say in advance, we’ve got to get closer.
Irina → That’s an answer I didn’t want to hear.
Brandt → Remember our motto, no magic tricks, dirty tricks have to work hard.
Irina → Pshhh. Let’s roll, lock n’ load, baby.
Brandt decides to be aware of cameras and traps
Irina takes care of leading the way, and the stealth
Irina failing a stealth check will allow for a (negative) SUM GM Action 🎲 GM Action (Tense) → Brings a very inconvenient NPC to the current scene 🎲 What does Brandt perception reveal? (What) → Conflicting Location |
Irina approaches couched down, carefully measuring her steps, but a hidden in the sand piece of plank squeezes its rust, doing a very hurtful noise that makes her close her eyes in inner pain. Brandt pushes Irina into cover, as he discovers they are getting close to a crossed-camera intersection. And someone is coming.
Irina → F*#K!
Brandt → Shhh. Stay put, I need to check if I can quickly jack in.
Irina → But someone is coming!!
Brandt → Silence!!
Irina readies her Heavy Pistol
Brandt pings the Access Point to check if it’s reachable from behind this rubble and rocks
🎲 Is the AP reachable? → Yes, obviously. |
Brandt → I’ve got it!! Irina, I need a distraction, hush him away!
Irina → HOW?????
Brandt → I don’t know, figure it out!! Just need a few minutes (wears VR Goggles)
Just stumbled on to here–what a thoughtful layout! I love seeing how other people thinking through solo sessions. 🙂
Thank you so much I’m glad that you liked it, yes I also like actual plays which explain how the player thinks, The stories themselves are not particularly special but rather how solo RPG is approached.